Skip to main content

Iowa DOT approves new traffic camera rules

Iowa DOT’s Transportation Commission has unanimously approved proposed rules for red light and speed cameras that require cities to prove the devices are needed to improve safety on highways. The rules require a city to perform an engineering analysis of the highway and also present some alternatives to the cameras to address any safety issues. Cities that currently have cameras installed would have to do the engineering study by May 2014. The rules must still go through the legislative approval process
December 11, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Iowa DOT’s Transportation Commission has unanimously approved proposed rules for red light and speed cameras that require cities to prove the devices are needed to improve safety on highways.

The rules require a city to perform an engineering analysis of the highway and also present some alternatives to the cameras to address any safety issues. Cities that currently have cameras installed would have to do the engineering study by May 2014. The rules must still go through the legislative approval process before being enacted.

Iowa is the only state in the US that allows cameras to be permanently installed along interstate roads or highways managed by the state. However, the state has no laws governing their use, leaving the decision to county supervisors and city councils to decide whether to install them.

Nine Iowa cities as well as Polk County use a mix of fixed and mobile cameras on state-run roads or interstate highways.

Related Content

  • How can US transportation be ‘re-envisioned’?
    October 17, 2019
    In her address to this year’s ITS America Annual Meeting, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, called for a ‘re-envisioning’ of transportation. Her speech is below – and ITS International asks a number of US experts what they would like to see ‘re-envisioned’…

    I would like to welcome  ITS America to the nation’s capital.

  • Impact of US economic stimulus programme on ITS industry
    August 2, 2012
    Pete Goldin reports on the public sector perspective in this second article exploring the impact of the US economic stimulus programme on the domestic ITS industry The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was enacted in February 2009 to help stimulate the US economy in the face of global recession. Of measures worth a nominal total of $787 billion, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) received just over $48 billion with which to promote short-term economic recovery and an additional $1.5 bil
  • Combining OCR and LPR technology aids truck identification
    March 16, 2012
    Automatic reading of Department of Transport numbers can provide an effcient and reliable means for enhancing the saftey and securitiy of freight operations, argues vice president for cargo solutions at High Tech Services, Benjie Wells. A key element of port security is identification of trucks at entry points to freight terminals and handling points.
  • Quebec to acquire new safety cameras
    January 24, 2013
    The Ministry of Transport of Quebec (MTQ), Canada, is to acquire thirty-seven new safety cameras, following an announcement in 2012 that it planned to add twenty-five photographic speed measuring devices in areas with a high accident risk, near schools and along road works. Fifteen devices have already been successfully tested. In total, thirty-seven cameras will be installed, including eighteen mobile speed cameras, fifteen red light cameras, which can be used at traffic lights to detect vehicles that spee